Yuichiro Shiotani, General Director of AEON Topvalu Vietnam, said Japan is the world’s third biggest economy with a high import demand, especially in food, garment-textiles, footwear, seafood, farm produce, plastic products, and wood.
These are products that Vietnam has advantages in, he said, adding that AEON, as a leading retail group in Japan, has prioritised the import of more made-in-Vietnam goods, particularly apparel products, food, household, and heathcare products, for distribution to its stores and supermarkets across the globe.
In order to help Vietnamese businesses to join the AEON supply chain and become a supplier for the over 1,000 AEON supermarkets around the globe, the group has built a plan including a number of activities to increase the presence of made-in-Vietnam goods, he said.
He added that AEON has also provided technical support to improve the production capability of Vietnamese suppliers and help them access Japanese customers, as well as boost the purchase of Vietnamese goods to sell at its stores in Japan and other countries.
Nguyen Thao Hien from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said Japan is one of the biggest trade partners of Vietnam, which makes up a large proportion of Vietnam’s export turnover of some key products such as garment-textiles and aquaculture.
She noted that the ministry and the Japanese group had signed a memorandum of understanding on supporting the export of Vietnamese products to the market through the distribution system of AEON. Under the MoU, AEON committed to raising Vietnam’s export turnover through the group’s system to US$500 million in 2020 and USS$1billion in 2025.
